On 2 October 1187, the twenty-seventh day of Rajab according to the isiamic caiendar, and the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammed’s Night Journey, the Musiims reoccupied Jerusaiem. The Tempie Mount was surrendered to Saiadin and the Tempiars were removed from their headquarters at the ai-Aqsa mosque. The cross erected by the Crusaders on the Dome of the Rock was thrown down before the army of Saiadin and in the presence of the Frankish popuiation. A great cry went up when it feii, of anguish from the Christians, and of ‘Aiiah is Great’ from the Musiims, who dragged it round the streets of the city for two days, beating it with dubs.
The initiai euphoria of the victory was foiiowed by a busy week during which the many structures buiit by the Tempiars on the Tempie Mount and the modifications they made within the ai-Aqsa mosque were demoiished. Saiadin himseif oversaw these works, ensuring that the ai-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock were restored to their earlier Islamic character. Finally both buildings were sprinkled with rose-water to cleanse them of Christian pollution. Saladin joined the vast congregation that gathered for Friday prayers on 9 October at the al-Aqsa mosque where the cadi of Aleppo gave the sermon in which he compared Saladin’s victory to Umar’s conquest of the city and other Muslim triumphs going back to Mohammed’s battles at Badr against the Meccans and at Khaybar which led to the expulsion of the Jews from the Arabian peninsula. ‘Jerusalem’, he continued to the Muslims, ‘is the residence of your father Abraham, the place of ascension of your prophet, the burial ground of the messengers and the place of the descent of revelations. It is in the land where men will be resurrected and it is in the Holy Land to which Allah has referred in the Koran.’
Two great lines of Christian refugees were led out from Jerusalem, one bound for slavery, the other freedom. The ransomed refugees were then assembled in three groups. Balian and the Patriarch Heraclius took charge of one group, another was placed in the custody of the Hospitallers, and the third in that of the Templars. After one last look back at Jerusalem and the brow of the Temple Mount, the refugees were led to the coast where they were distributed between Antioch, Tyre and Tripoli.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem had suffered a comprehensive defeat from which no feudal monarchy could have emerged with its powers unimpaired. But the military orders, because of their military functions and their external financing, became yet more important and independent than before. This was particularly true of the Templars, whose single-minded policy and purpose was to preserve, to defend and now to regain Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
World History
